Time Cops: Of Mice and Lemurs
by King in Yellow
Summary: Team J – the über-secret time cops – receive another Possible family member for their newest mission. What do brains and muscle need in addition to their own abilities? Beauty, obviously… And maybe fur (something needs to fly when it all hits the fan). Jane hopes cousin Cat won't be around to turn this into Team Possible III. And who needs lemurs anyway? Best Enemies universe.
1. Of Mice and Lemurs

Boilerplate Disclaimer: The various characters from the Kim Possible series are owned by Disney. All registered trade names property of their respective owners. Cheap shots at celebrities constitute fair usage.

NoDrogs created Kasy and Sheki, I've changed their origin and added a younger sister.

Set soon after **Time Cops: Save the Guacamole, Save the Bat Mitzvah**, some 20+ years into the Best Enemies series. Narrator is daughter to Kim and Shego. Junior is son of Joss & Wade. Catlyn is daughter of Tim and Erin (Tara's younger sister).

**Of Mice and Lemurs… Okay, There Are No Mice **

I was in English class, trying hard to stay awake with only limited success when the voice of God came over the intercom: "Mr. Hernandez, please send Jane O'Ceallaigh to the principal's office."

Mr. Hernandez looked over at me, but I was already gathering my stuff for the long walk. "Remember to send in your book report on 'Lo, The Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption'," he reminded me.

"I will," I sighed. Plow was quite possibly the dullest collection of English words in existence outside of a dictionary - it made the poetry of Milton look like great literature. I've heard a rumor that Milton is considered great literature anyway, but I've always had a little trouble believing it. I found Junior heading to Mrs. Wright's office as well. "Know what this is about?" I asked.

"No idea."

The secretary waved us in the direction of the open door. Not that she needed to, Junior and I had a lot of experience with Mrs. Wright's command center. We went in and assumed the parade rest position.

She gave us a cold look, "Lemur. Either of you know anything about it?"

"Lemur?" Junior asked.

"Been one seen in the halls multiple times today. When anyone gets close it disappears."

"Disappears?" Junior asked, puzzled.

"Why did you call us in?" I demanded. "Why are we the two you always call to the office?"

"Do you need the list?" she snapped. "I didn't say either of you are responsible. It simply saves time if I start with you two. Mr. Load here appears to be in the dark on the subject of lemurs. Your initial response was to change the subject. While that might be outrage over an unjust accusation it might be a clumsy diversion. Lemurs, what do you know?"

"Um… Well, I… I don't know anything about lemurs myself," I stammered, "but it's kinda weird. I was in California a couple weeks ago for some bat mitzvahs – Junior wasn't there – and there was some kind of disruption and someone said it was lemurs or something, I mean, I didn't see them, I'm just saying I heard there were lemurs there and then they all disappeared. That's what they were saying."

"So, you're asking me to believe this phantom lemur followed you from California?"

"I'm not asking you to believe anything! I don't know anything about—"

"Mrs. Wright," the secretary's voice came through the door, "lemur sighting in the hall outside the science labs."

Mrs. Wright was pushing herself back from the desk at the word 'sighting' and out the door by 'labs'. "You two stay here," she barked over her shoulder as she did her own disappearing act.

"You said something about time lemurs?" Junior reminded me when the coast was clear.

"That was what I-plus called them. I didn't see them do any temporal shifting, so I could have been lying to myself. They're darn good at spatial shifts."

"Probably how they disappear. Why would it follow you home?"

"You don't know it had anything to do with me! You're as bad as Mrs. Wright! I fight some lemurs in California and suddenly I'm Lemur Girl or something?"

"I was just saying, you fight some lemurs in California and suddenly there's one at Middleton High? That's too much coincidence to—"

"Maybe it's the Lowerton mascot."

"Why would the Lowerton mascot be in the halls of…"

"Why do you keep asking me questions I don't know the answer to? You're as bad as Mrs. Wright."

The voice of doom came through the open door behind me, "As bad as Mrs. Wright?"

I closed my eyes. Principal Wright would, of course, pick this second to come back to her office. I didn't think life could get any worse, but opened my eyes and found it could. Trailing meekly in the wake of battleship Wright was cousin Cat. "I was just saying he was asking questions I don't know the answers to," I explained as she assumed the throne of authority behind her desk and Cat joined Junior and me on the firing line. Being less familiar with the protocols for interrogating prisoners of war Cat just fidgeted nervously.

"Before he retired Principal Barkin warned me about the Possible family," Mrs. Wright began. "I used to think he must have exaggerated… Miss Possible, the lemur appeared to be looking for you. Was that your pet?"

I wasn't sure if cousin Cat knew the importance of plausible deniability, so I spoke up in her defense, "Why would you accuse her of that? She doesn't know anymore about lemurs than I do."

"The lemur handed her something," Mrs. Wright snapped. "And I'll remember that you know as much as she does."

"I was just sitting in class," Cat told her, "and the lemur came in. It wasn't… It was cute, but… I… I mean, maybe it was just…"

"Why don't you look at what the creature handed you," Mrs. Wright suggested in a honeyed kind voice that Junior and I knew from experience was a trap.

"Uh… Sure," Cat said and examined the little leather pouch. She opened it and found a piece of paper. "There's writing on it."

"Read it," the principal ordered.

"It says… Jane lied to you. Box for you on Wade's desk. See instructions…"

"Is that all it says?"

"Yes."

"May I see it?"

"No."

"What else does it say that you won't let me see it?"

"It's signed."

"And what does the signature say?"

"It, um… says 'Cat'."

"I see," Mrs. Wright said, "I –"

"We're being framed," I protested. "Why would Cat write a note to herself? Someone else must have written it and given it to some random lemur to—"

"Random lemur?"

"We don't have a regularly scheduled lemur," I insisted. "Probably a Lowerton plot to get Cat in trouble so she'll miss a swim meet or something, and the lemur messed up and gave it to Cat. Pure accident."

"And the reference to yourself and Mr. Load?" the enemy counter-attacked.

I put an arm over Cat's shoulders, "Just wanting to cause trouble for Cat and her best friend in the world," I answered.

Cat gave me a suspicious look, but put her arm on my shoulder, "Yeah, Jane's my best friend." There was a little inflection there that suggested the question, "Did you lie to me?"

There was a minute of silence while Principal Wright pondered our fates - or her moving up her own retirement… Those were my guesses anyway. She could have been thinking about the broken light in her office two months ago… I swear, I had nothing to do with that. I'm just saying I don't know what was going on her mind during that minute of silence. Finally she sighed, "While the odds against the three of you being innocent in this melodrama are staggering there is a serious lack of hard evidence linking you to the lemur. It simply disappeared when I went into—"

"I still don't understand, how it could just disappear?" Junior asked.

"I don't know," she snapped. "How did that contraption I confiscated from you disappear from my locked closet while I was sitting here in my office?" Junior had the good sense to regard that as a rhetorical question and not provide an answer and Mrs. Wright returned to what I recognized from experience to be another verdict not so much of acquittal as a sentence of probation. "You three may return to class. If the lemur continues to appear I will assess the situation from that point."

The lemur certainly did continue to appear. The next time was at lunch. I was sitting at a table with my cousins and hoping Francis would come over and sit with us when I heard laughter and cries of 'look at that,' from the direction of the side door. The crowd parted and something lopped along the floor in our direction.

"Ohhh, isn't it cute?" Cat asked.

"No," I muttered, hoping it would come close enough for me to grab. It jumped up on the seat beside Cat and I slowly reached towards it, hoping to grab it by the scruff of the neck.

Apparently lemurs have wonderful peripheral vision – at least those who survive the lions, or tigers, or polar bears, or whatever else preys on them wherever it is they live. This one had the benefits of many generations of selective breeding. It turned and bared its little fangs before emitting a loud hiss. I don't speak lemur fluently… Heck, I don't even speak rudimentary lemur… But I'm pretty sure it was some kind of a threat. He didn't scare me – I was a lot bigger than he was – but the cafeteria wasn't a good place to settle this man-to-man… Or lemur-to-girl… I mean, I didn't have a set of dueling pistols on me and someone might have been shot by accident when we did the ten paces thing so I cautiously drew my hand back as Cat patted the thing on the head and promised it that she wouldn't let me hurt it as the creature gazed at her with a look of adoration.

"Is that your monkey," someone in the crowd that had surrounded the table asked.

"It's not a monkey, it's a lemur," some girl corrected him.

"Lemurs are a kind of monkey," someone else argued.

"Lemurs are classified as prosimians," Junior announced with that annoying tone of voice that can't be argued with and kills all discussion, "while monkeys are classified as anthropoids. They both belong to the order of primates."

"See!" the one girl said in triumph.

The boy who said lemurs are a kind of monkey looked like he wanted to argue, but then he remembered that when teachers had a question they usually asked Junior for the right answer. "I meant to say they were both primates."

Cat gave the thing some pieces of her fruit salad and its response to her was probably the same as mine would have been during a calculus test if God suddenly appeared in a fiery chariot and gave me the answers to the questions I was having trouble with.

A couple other kids were going back to find pieces of fruit for it when Coach Snyder, on lunchroom duty, headed our way to check out what was happening.

"That your lemur, Ms Possible?" he asked Cat.

"She never saw it before in her life," I answered quickly. "We have witnesses."

Cat remembered she had been seen with a lemur earlier in the day, and Mrs. Wright was a witness to that fact. "It might be the one I saw earlier," she began. "It isn't mine."

"All lemurs look alike," I argued.

"That's racist," Junior shot at me, "Or, uh, primatist."

Coach Snyder muttered something which might have been a profanity under his breath and reached for the lemur, which simply disappeared. "What the hell?"

"Did you hear about the phantom lemur?" I asked him. "That was it. It seems to like Cat. It's not her fault lemurs like her."

Most of the crowd had melted away when Coach approached, but Francis took the opening to join us at our table. "Sorry I missed the excitement," he chuckled as he cautiously poked his entrée with a fork to make sure it was dead.

"With my luck it will be back," I predicted. I usually enjoy being right, but wouldn't have minded being wrong on that one. I wasn't. My genius for knowing future… Well, maybe it's not genius so much as… But I digress. The point is, the lemur was back before we finished lunch.

When the buzzer sounded the end of lunch the startled lemur disappeared and Cat told Junior, "I'm going home with you to see what's in the box for me."

"I'm coming too," I told him. I was as curious as Cat on that subject and was having trouble restraining myself from jumping to his place right then and checking it out.

Given how the school day had gone I wasn't too surprised that a furry critter was sitting on the low brick wall outside the school. Several students were trying to get it to acknowledge their presence, but it was waiting patiently for someone else. Cat squealed with delight, held out her arms and said "Pretty baby," and it jumped up and hugged her.

I figured I might as well try and make peace with it and reached a hand over to pat it on the head. It bared its little fangs and me and confirmed my low opinion of all things lemur. "It's like I've got the mark of Zorro on me, or something," I complained.

"Mark of Zorro?" Junior asked.

"It's in the Bible. Something about marked for trouble or something."

"I think that's the mark of Cain."

"Nah, it's the mark of Zorro. Cane marks are what you used to get when the teachers beat you in school."

Junior didn't say anything but just looked mildly exasperated. He hates it when I'm right, but I know the Bible way better than he does.

Junior's mom and dad weren't home. He texted them to let them know Cat was with us. Cat and the lemur. Cat and I are both second cousins to Junior but I get counted as honorary sister so he doesn't have to alert them to me being over any more than I have to alert my mothers. I mean, when you've bathed in the same tub with a guy you pretty much know everything about him. Not that I can remember bathing in the same tub with Junior. That was before we were even one, but parents – being parents – remind us of the fact way too often in order to embarrass the heck out of us. Junior wasn't sure if he should tell his folks there was a lemur in the house – it's the sort of fact some parents might prefer to not know about – but in case there was any sort of incident he wanted to be able to tell them, 'I warned you.'

We found the box on the desk in Junior's bedroom. Junior reached for it but Cat stopped him. "That's mine."

"How do you know?" I demanded,

"'Cause the note said it was," she retorted.

The lemur prowled the room as she opened the box. "Is this a Chrono?" she asked, holding up the device she found inside.

Junior extended a hand and she gave it to him to examine, "Yes," he confirmed, giving it back, "a five point three."

"Five-three!" I protested. "I've only got a five! How did she get a five-three?"

"Now who's being Mrs. Wright?" Junior answered.

Cat, meanwhile, was looking at another note, one she found under the Chrono. She gave me a dirty look, "This says you went on a mission last week without me."

"So?"

"You promised you'd take me on a mission!"

"I didn't say when! I didn't say I'd take you on my next mission. I said someday."

"So you and Junior went—"

"I didn't go on anything," he interrupted. "I'm recovering from my operation, remember? She went by herself."

Cat glared at me, "You went without backup?"

I glared at Junior, "Why'd you tell her that?"

"At least I didn't tell her you got your butt kicked," he shot back.

"What?" Cat demanded.

"Junior!" I shouted. "You didn't have to say that!"

He shrugged. "Truth."

"Justice," Cat said, "you owe me a mission. This one," she added waving the note.

"The American way," I muttered.

Junior looked more puzzled than usual. "I want truth. Cat wants justice. What's that American way thing?"

"It just sounded good," I told him. "I think the American way thing is denying reality when you don't like it – who was that guy who went crazy after an election because it didn't go the way he wanted and he said in a democracy he would have been elected and then he declared himself emperor of the United States or something?"

"I think his name was Trump. Who cares about a crazy man? I want to know about this mission Cat claims to have."


	2. The Times Which Try Men's Souls

Boilerplate Disclaimer: The various characters from the Kim Possible series are all owned by Disney. Any and all registered trade names property of their respective owners. Cheap shots at celebrities constitute fair usage.

NoDrogs created Kasy and Sheki, I've changed origin and added their younger sister. Jane is daughter to Kim and Shego. Junior is son of Joss & Wade. Catlyn is daughter of Tim and Erin (Tara's younger sister).

**The Times Which Try Men's Souls (Women's Too)**

"Something real sketchy here," I protested. "It smells like a trap - or someone forgot to forgot to wash his gym socks again." I probably shouldn't have made the dig at Junior, I mean, it just happened that once. But after he told Cat that I got my butt kicked last week I was steamed. I did not get my butt kicked last week. I mean, yes, technically I lost the fight - but just barely. I almost beat Cyber-Snake all by myself. One of these days Junior and I will figure out what she does with the stuff she steals. His theory is that she eats it. I think he's wrong. I don't have a better idea what she... Sorry, I seem to be digressing. "What kind of a mission?" I asked Cat. I turned to Junior, "I'll bet it's Dr. Crime, or Cyber-Snake, or the Moebius Man."

"It says we're supposed to go to," Cat told us, and then started to read off a long list of letters and numbers.

"Stop," I ordered. "That makes no sense."

She looked unhappy with the news.

"Let me see your Chrono again," Junior asked. He opened the back after she handed it to him. "Hmmm... Let me get my tools." He looked up at me. "This is brand new, it hasn't been calibrated yet. Those are raw coordinates. I need to adjust the settings to language norm."

My jaw dropped, "She's got a new Chrono?"

"Right out of the box, apparently," he told me.

I've never had a new Chrono. I always get hand-me-downs from plus selves.

"You didn't recognize that coordinate stuff?" Cat asked, in a voice that suggested her opinion of my ability might have slipped four points.

"I always calibrate my Chronos before I give them to myself," I boasted. "Maybe whoever is setting up the trap doesn't know how." I wouldn't count that part about me calibrating them as a lie, at least not technically. I mean, I've never calibrated a Chrono in my life until now, but _maybe_ I was the one who calibrated them before giving them to me. I mean, it's possible, right? I don't _know_ that Junior calibrated them for me.

Junior moved to his work table and pulled open a tool drawer. Cat and I moved over to stand behind him, peer over his shoulder and pretend we understood what he was doing. Even the lemur came over and jumped up on the work table to watch the show.

"Give me the point four millimeter counter-hex," Junior requested.

While Cat and I tried to figure out what language he was speaking the lemur reached into the tool drawer, pulled something out, and handed it to Junior - who was too engrossed in what he was doing to even notice the furry little fingers.

"Thanks," Junior muttered and finished the adjustments. He looked up at Cat, "I'll show you how to enter the long form cords you have. The Chrono will translate them to language norm, and I'll show you how to enter those cords, and also space and time bounce buttons. We usually just use the norm cords - they're much easier to program."

Cat had no idea what Junior was talking about with cords and bounce, but she smiled and nodded.

The cords smelled even fishier when translated to norm. "Plus eleven years?" I asked in disbelief. "There's no way we should fall for this."

"What's the problem?" Cat asked.

"We usually go minus, into the past," Junior explained. "We figure there are technological developments we can't anticipate in the future, so we let plus selves handle the future." Then he reminded me, "We sometimes do plus missions."

"Emphasis on the sometimes. We're supposed to blindly follow directions from person unknown - who doesn't knew how to set a Chrono - and go plus eleven years and face something we don't even have a clue about? This doesn't just just stink, it reeks."

"I think we should go," Cat insisted.

"How about we wait a week or two until I'm recovered," Junior suggested by way of compromise, "the future is still going to be there."

"No," Cat pouted. "I want to go now. I don't want Jane sneaking off again to-"

"I didn't sneak!" I protested. "I didn't promise you next mission. And this isn't a mission, it's a trap!"

"It's a mission!"

"It's a trap!"

"While you two are engaged in intellectual debate," Junior added, "how about I fine tune Cat's Chrono?"

That distracted my pretty cousin for a minute. "Fine tuning?"

"Let's put your room in as default panic loc and some neutral time - some time when you're in school or you know no one is home - for panic time."

"Uh... Okay," she agreed and handed over her Chrono again.

He figured out the cords for her room, then asked for a day last week when she knew the house was empty.

"I want two days from now, one in the afternoon," she countered.

"He said last week," I reminded her.

"No one will be home in two days," she insisted.

"You don't know that," I shot back. "You could catch the plague or something from a flea on that mangy lemur."

The mangy lemur seemed to know it had been mentioned and bared its teeth and hissed at me.

"Pretty baby doesn't have fleas. And I'll just wish myself well 'cause I'll know I'm coming." She turned and gave Junior the puppy-dog pout. Not all Grandma Anne's female descendants have the pout. It skipped Sheki and me and we're not sure if cousin Phoenix has it or not - the way she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger she won't need it. Cat's got it and Junior recognized the inevitable and caved fast.

"Fine," he muttered. "Where's the point four?" The lemur, who had been scratching himself with the counter-hex, handed it back to Junior. "Thanks." He worked his magic on the Chrono, gave Cat a fast explanation of default bounce and temporary bounce, put the now in temporary, and handed it back to Cat.

She disappeared, but was back a couple seconds later in a new outfit.

"What's that?" I demanded.

"Mission outfit," she sniffed. "I'm ready to go."

"You're dressed like my Mom when she used to go on missions," I pointed out.

"So? The cargo pants have room for stuff and are loose enough for me to move freely."

"First," I reminded her. "You don't have stuff to carry. Second, you don't know enough martial arts to worry about limiting your fighting skills. And third, she's my mom."

"I could ask her for permission," Cat said smugly - knowing I kept my hero life a secret. Eemah would skin me alive if she found out I was doing hero stuff.

"And where'd you get the outfit anyway?"

"I'm going to buy it tomorrow."

I looked at Junior, hoping for support. It was clear that Cat had no idea what she was doing - we were walking into some kind of trap and she was out-of-touch with reality. Unfortunately Junior was, as they say, not with the program.

"My Dad used to make stuff for Jane's mom. I've made some things for Jane, but she never carries them on missions. Can I put them in a bag for you? They might come in handy."

Cat bestowed one of those smiles half the boys in school would kill to receive. I'm almost pretty sure that Junior doesn't care, but you can never tell. He is a guy, and she's only a second cousin after all. "I'd love that."

Junior scrambled to put some stuff together while I explained the 'rules' to Cat. "I'm in charge. This trap is set out at the L and L labs and-"

"I'm helping Daddy?"

"No, you're walking into a trap. What was the first rule?"

"You're in charge," she answered petulantly.

"Right. It's probably to lull us into a false sense of security. I tell you 'home' and you bounce back to default where you're safe. Security has biometrics for both me and Junior in the system. You're probably safe too, but if alarms sound you bounce to default, got that?"

"Yes," she sighed.

"You keep your head down until Junior or... You keep your head down until I tell you its time for action."

"Can I have a voice in that?" Junior asked.

"You said you weren't going," I reminded him.

"I've got a cross-chronological communicator I've been wanting to try out."

"Want to try? Why haven't you tested it before?"

"Cross-chronological. It gets nothing if we're in the same now." He went to his work table, and found the lemur had the device out and was examining the pieces. "Stay out of my stuff," he told the beast. "This is the camera," he explained, pressing an adhesive backed something onto my forehead. He handed me the second piece, "Put this in your ear." After I complied he put another adhesive backed thing on my throat, "Microphone."

The camera and mike were a bit smaller than a dime. "It tickles. Why are they so big?"

"If you miniaturize them too much they get lost."

We briefed Cat a little more on what to expect, and then got ready to jump. I hate jumping into traps, but with any luck it would go badly enough that it would scare Cat away from wanting to go on any other missions. Junior got his computer synced for the com device as soon as we were out of now, and gave us the thumbs up to go plus. As we hit the switches the lemur jumped up and held on to Cat.

The lemur was still there eleven years later. I expected alarms to sound through the labs, but apparently lemur genes are so far removed from what is normally regarded as a danger that nothing sounded. "Stay out of trouble, Pretty Baby," Cat whispered as the lemur jumped to the floor and began to look around.

"You don't have to whisper," I told her. "It's three in the morning. No one's here... Oh, wait, except for whoever set this trap."

"It's not a trap, it's a mission."

"It's a trap. Let's look around. Be careful."

We found the problem in storage area B. By 'problem' I mean Doctor Crime's goons grabbing anything they could find to steal. And by 'we' I mean Cat and me. I don't know where her 'Pretty Baby' had wandered off to, but if he were lost forever I wasn't going to shed a tear.

"Those things on their chests must mask their biometrics," Junior's voice said in my ear.

"Whoop," I whispered, hoping my voice would pick up. "I'll bet the sun comes up in the east tomorrow."

"Hey, you miss things sometimes."

I considered pointing out that he missed stuff too, but now was not the time to argue - and I didn't want to do it in front of the rookie.

"What's that big thing?" Cat asked in regard to a boxy looking thing they were stacking their loot beside.

"It's a BuTT, bulk time transport," I told her. "Probably still too hot from the trip here to load. You don't want to use it for anything organic - and you sure as heck don't want to be locked in one."

"What do we do?" Cat asked.

"I want a biometric mask for testing," Junior's voice told me.

"That'll set off the alarm," I pointed out.

"So? Let Dad's security handle it," Junior answered.

I was about to point out that any method of obtaining a biometric mask would require me handling a fight when the issue was rendered relatively moot by one of Crime's men, carrying a stack of boxes of stolen something which blocked most of his vision, bumping into us."

"Hey!" he shouted, "we got-" That was when I hit him the first time. I'd like to think I caused the loud scream of pain, but I suspect it came from him dropping the boxes on his foot. In a one-on-one fight I might have moral qualms about hitting a man in pain, but I'm willing to overlook that when I'm out-numbered, and I was out-numbered. I gave him a fast one-two and he went down.

"Home!" I shouted at Cat. I'd grab this guy's cloaking device and follow her. Junior was right, let the security team at L and L handle this. I didn't want my cousin to get hurt.

"No, we've got to stop them," Cat yelled, and ran toward Doctor Crime himself. That left me to deal with the seven goons who still had their eyes open.

I swore under my breath so loud at Cat for her stupid rookie move that the throat mike might have picked it up. She was obviously auditioning for the role of unlikely hero, but I was willing to bet money she'd end up as damsel-in-distress. I knew I'd have to rescue her shortly, but at the moment I was in action girl mode and had to take out the seven mooks between me and the big bad. I was in them like one of those windmills that Quixote guy faced and had two of them down for the count and had at least one punch or kick on each of the rest when I heard Doctor Crime's voice, "Ah, good morning, Catlyn."

Doctor Crime is from the 'being a criminal mastermind is not incompatible with good manners' school of villainy. Not that I was remembering that fact at the moment. At that second I was thinking, "Oh fleam!" He recognized Cat. That means this was the trap I feared. We'd taken the cheese and if we weren't careful it was going to snap shut and break our necks.


	3. Tell Me About the Lemurs, George

Boilerplate Disclaimer: The various characters from the Kim Possible series are all owned by Disney. Any and all registered trade names property of their respective owners. Cheap shots at celebrities constitute fair usage.

NoDrogs created Kasy and Sheki, I've changed their origin and added their younger sister.

**Tell Me About the Lemurs, George, Tell Me about the Lemurs**

I felt like Doctor Crime had just confirmed this was a trap, but time travel can be confusing - even for an old hand at it like me. There are never two options - I mean, if you have less than twenty-seven you can consider yourself lucky. "Time out" I yelled and held my hands in a 'T' position.

The grunts stepped back, they were perfectly willing to take a break from their job description of me pounding the snot out of them. "Think I have time for a cig?" I heard one whisper to the goon next to him.

"Not on the boss's time," his buddy reminded him.

I called over to Doctor Crime, "You know her?"

It was his turn to look puzzled. "Of course... Don't you? I thought the two of you were related."

"I've never seen you before in my life," Cat told him.

"Ah, well that explains Jane's question. I've met an older you several times even if this is your first meeting with... If it is your first meeting with me, may I ask if Lenny is with you?"

"Lenny?" Cat asked, bewildered.

_"Oh great,"_ I thought, _"are we going to end up with time squad or something? Who's Lenny?" _Maybe I'd get lucky and Lenny was some hunky boyfriend Cat was going to have - which would hopefully reduce the competition for Francis.

Cat got a little too close to Crime and he grabbed her. Another rookie mistake from Cat. Doctor C is not a nice person, he is usually polite, but that shouldn't confused with being a nice person. I was moderately worried. Crime isn't much of a fighter – I'd say about Junior level – but Cat isn't that good. I knew Cat couldn't get killed. First, Doctor Crime had already met Cat+. Second Doctor Crime had learned that time travel and murder is a really, really, REALLY bad combination. But while I knew Cat couldn't get killed she could get hurt, and I'd be the one who got blamed for her acting dumb.

At the moment, however, I had my hands full. There were still five conscious flunkies and one of them was Iron jaw. Iron Jaw isn't his name, it's what I call him after I busted a knuckle on him that time. Do mooks have names? Do they go home to Mrs. Mook at the end of the day for a supper of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans? Does she ask how the day went and listen to stories about getting knocked on your ass and firing a hundred and twenty-seven rounds at a hero at point-blank range and missing every time? While I was ruminating on the home lives of cannon fodder I managed to put two more of them down.

Most of Crime's goons are your regulation three-hit men, but Iron Jaw never went down with less than five. In the name of preserving my knuckles I tried to introduce my heel to his physiognomy, forgetting for a minute that I was dealing with Iron Jaw two-point-oh – at least in terms of my own experience. I was painfully reminded of that fact as the back of my head made its own introduction with Mr. Floor after he flipped me.

One of the remaining mooks tried to jump me while I was down. Only one of us got up – and it wasn't him.

That left me, Iron Jaw and another flunkie on our feet, dancing at the hop. I risked a glance at the rookie. She was doing better than expected. With any luck I'd have both these guys down before Crime ordered me to stop or he'd break her arm.

"Can you look over in Cat's direction again?" Junior's voice asked in my ear.

"I'm a little busy right now," I reminded him.

"Huh?" Iron Jaw asked.

"Throat mike," I explained

"Oh," he grunted.

A foot to the stomach left the other goon sitting on the floor trying to catch his breath. It was nice some things weren't going to change when fighting the Crime gang.

My best guess was that IJ might have two more years of fighting me than I had fighting him. I was feeling pretty good about what my own fighting level would be in two years, but a little worried about whether the current version of me was up to facing the version of him I was facing today.

A loud scream distracted us and we stepped away from each other to check out the action. I figured Crime had managed to overpower Cat and get her arm twisted behind her back.

But it wasn't Cat who was screaming. I don't know if lemur teeth in your ankle are really that painful, or if it was the surprise, but at the moment I don't think Doctor Crime was prepared for a rational analysis of the question. He let go of Cat and started hopping around on one leg, the other leg raised in the air as he vigorously kicked it around trying to dislodge the lemur.

The lemur, meanwhile, had wrapped his furry little arms and legs around Crime's leg and seemed just as determined to keep his teeth in their current location as Doctor Crime was to dissuade him from his goal.

Crime was using curse words I'd only heard once or twice before from Kasy and I figured Cat had never heard before in her sheltered life.

"Don't hurt Pretty Baby!" Cat shrieked and grabbed something to lambaste Crime. I don't know what she grabbed – it probably hadn't been invented yet… I mean, it had obviously been invented when we were, but it hadn't been invented when I was… I digressed again, didn't I?

Anyway, I tried to shout, "Don't hit-" but Cat hit him before I could tell her not to. Frankly, I think she would have hit him even I'd manage to get the sentence finished.

Crime winked out of time, along with his henchmen, and the transport began to wheeze as it chugged to life. "Get away from his BuTT," I shouted.

I'm pretty sure Cat and the lemur had already figured that out as they scrambled toward me.

"What happened?" Cat asked.

Before I could answer the lemur jumped up into Cat's arms and she gave it a hug. It gave me an evil lemur grin like it thought it was something special or something.

"Crime's got a couple defaults. One of them is if you knock him out. He and his gang just go back to their safety place."

With a soft whoosh the BuTT vanished. Cat looked around the mess, "What were they trying to do?"

"Steal stuff, obviously. Maybe you can patent it before it's invented. Maybe you can use it for other crimes. But it's hard to get arrested for stolen goods when they won't even be stolen for another eight or nine years. What's your guess?"

"I don't-" Cat started.

"I was asking Junior," I explained to her.

"I think you summed it—" Junior started.

I couldn't hear him because Cat was talking, "Sorry, I couldn't tell you were—"

I put up a hand to quiet her, "He was trying to tell me I was right about my guess."

"Well I can't hear him," she told me in a snippy voice.

"Why don't you bounce back," Junior suggested.

"That's a good idea," I sighed.

"What's a good idea?" Cat asked.

"Let's go back," I told her.

"That's a good idea," Cat agreed.

As soon as we were back in Junior's room Cat went on the offensive. "You have give me a receiver for my ear next time I go on a mission with Jane," she told him.

"You aren't going on any more missions with me," I told her.

"Yes I am, Doctor Crime told me so."

"He said he'd seen you before - he didn't say you were on missions."

"When else would he have seen me?"

"Junior," I protested, "tell her she's not going on more missions."

Guys are hopeless. He just shrugged, "I just visit the future, I don't predict it."

"I want a receiver," Cat said firmly. "And you need to tell me more about this equipment."

"You didn't want to wait, remember," Junior reminded her.

"I wanted to go on a mission."

"We went into a trap," I countered.

"We stopped Doctor Crime," Cat said happily to Junior.

"She conked him out before I could grab a biometric mask for you to examine," I reported glumly.

"And I was very brave," Cat said proudly.

"You were very stupid," I argued.

"I was brave, wasn't I?" Cat asked with a little tremor in her voice.

"Yeah," I sighed. "You were brave." Frankly I felt like the stupid out-weighed the brave, but I'm not sure what kind of a scale you can use to measure that. I wondered if Junior could design one.

Cat squealed with delight when I said she was brave, threw her arms around me and gave me a hug.

The hug went on for too long. I mean, maybe I'm imagining things. I was a little frustrated with Cat at that moment so I really didn't need a hug. And it might be that she usually gives longer hugs than I am used to receiving. But that hug went on WAY too long in my mind, and she was squeezing me tighter than she needed to. I was telling myself for the third time it was all in my imagination when the lemur came to my rescue by tugging on Cat's pants for attention.

"Oh, don't be jealous," she cooed and stepped away from me. She opened her arms and the lemur jumped up for its own hug. "Who else was brave? Who else was the bravest lemur in the whole world?" She was rubbing noses with the beast. "You are. You are the bravest little lemur in the whole world. Aren't you, aren't you wonderful?"

She kissed it on the nose. I was afraid the fur bag was going to die from ecstasy. I hoped she planned to disinfect her lips when she got home.

"You're doing some nasty things to my gag reflex," I warned.

"Don't be jealous," Cat told me. "But wasn't Lenny wonderful?"

"Lenny? I thought you called the lemur 'Pretty Baby'."

"That's his nickname. I think he's more of a Lenny. Don't you think he's a Lenny?"

"_Lenny the lemur? That's as dumb as 'Pretty Baby."_ "Uh, sure," I told her. "If you say he's Lenny he's Lenny."

-The End-


End file.
